Wii

We had a blast with No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, and are still awaiting word from Grasshopper Manufacture regarding a soundtrack release. While the game was released months ago in North America, it still hasn’t been released in Japan, and we’ve been fortunate enough to get some of lead sound designer and composer Jun Fukuda and sound coordinator Nobuhiko Sagara’s time to talk about their work on the title.

We dig deep into the many artists that were recorded for the soundtrack, the influence of the game’s theme of revenge, the use of tracks from the No More Heroes Dark Side Remixes album, a No More Heroes 2 soundtrack release, and Fukuda’s and Sagara’s respective backgrounds that led them to their current roles at Grasshopper Manufacture. It’s a good time, so we hope you enjoy reading about what went into all the sound elements in No More Heroes 2!

We’re back with another blast from the past, an interview series that revisits classic interviews I conducted while writing for Music4Games. Thus far we’ve featured Tomoko Sasaki and Naofumi Hataya of NiGHTS as well as Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo of Super Mario Galaxy. This time we’re going to take a look at what Hitoshi Sakimoto had to say about Basiscape’s involvement with Opoona shortly before the game’s North American release date.

Not only do we discuss Sakimoto’s inspiration for the title, but also the contributions of the other members of the Basiscape team. At the time Opoona was released in the United States, Basiscape was a relatively new company, so the details of the studio and its employees also come up. It’s interesting to hear just how emotionally involved Sakimoto and the other Opoona staff members were, and I think it’s about time this amazing soundtrack made its way to the fans.

We’re back with another “Blast to the Past” interview where we’re spotlighting classic interviews that I conducted while writing for Music4Games. Since the website is no longer online, I thought it would be a shame to let these interviews slide into the void, so we’ve decided to give them new life here on OSV.

With Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the horizon, we thought it’d be appropriate to take a trip back to the release date of the original Super Mario Galaxy to see what Nintendo’s Koji Kondo and Mahito Yokota had to say about the game’s music. I hope we can get a repeat of this kind of interview for Super Mario Galaxy 2, but in the meantime, read what the two have to say about their inspirations, recording with a live orchestra, and about the soundtrack release that they skirted around and then went on to announce a full two weeks later (yes, I’m still bitter).

We talked about this title some weeks ago as Nintendo launched 3 official websites for their upcoming titles Metroid: Other M, The Last Story and XENOBLADE. These websites featured some rather nice sound samples of what we could expect, and people have been trying to figure out the composers for the different titles.

Well now we know one of them atleast, as Famitsu reports in their latest issue that Yoko Shimomura will score the soundtrack for XENOBLADE. Now we just gotta know the composers for the other titles as well.

This game really came out of left field at E3 2009. I distinctly remember the playful samba music coming from the speakers above the floor along with the multitude of smiles and laughs coming from the people lining the kiosks. The game was released at the end of 2009, and has sold a slew of copies, so I guess it’s obvious that Nintendo knew right from the start that it had something big on its hands.

As we’re not likely to see a soundtrack release for the game based on our interview with New Super Mario Bros. Wii Sound Director Kenta Nagata, I thought it’d be appropriate to take a look at the game and its music in a review. While there was a lot of marketing that went into the multiplayer aspects of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it was also designed to work as a single player game, and I think fans of the Mario series will be pleased not only with the game design, but also with the fan service Nintendo provides with countless throwbacks to past Mario games including Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 64.

Hit the jump to find out what we thought in our review of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. (more…)

At E3 2009, Nintendo revealed the newest chapter in the Metroid saga, the oddly named Metroid: Other M. Treated to a nerdy ovation and instantly peaking everyone’s interests, the game quickly went behind the curtains again and little if anything has been shown of what to expect. Even more hidden was Monado: Beginning of the World. The title is Monolith’s new RPG, and was only shown in the press package released online, but no mention given at the conference itself. Finally Nintendo has started slowly to reveal more.

Monado: Beginning of the World has now changed title (in Japan at least) to XENOBLADE, which raises some interesting questions of its connection to the Xeno series. Another title was also revealed on the day of the website launch, a new RPG from Mistwalker titled The Last Story, by Hironobu Sakaguchi. Yeah you read the title right, the creator of Final Fantasy now has a new game called The Last Story. Clever.

The three websites all come with audio samples of what we might expect, and none disappoint. Metroid: Other M has a contemplative piano track, The Last Story has a very nice violin track, and XENOBLADE has what seems to be a Sakuraba-esque epic theme.

There was no doubt that New Super Mario Bros. Wii would be hugely successful. The game kind of came out of nowhere, and it has been rocking the sales charts since it was released at the tail end of 2009. We’ve been trying to hunt down the audio team for an interview, and while I admit it took longer than we had hoped, at least we got it done!

Joining us is New Super Mario Bros. Wii Sound Director Kenta Nagata to tell us about how the team approached the game’s music, from why Mario sports a Latin sound despite being Italian, to the role of “rhythm” in a game with so many characters on the screen at once. It’s a nice look back at the game and its music, so please enjoy!

Upcoming Events

VGM CON (Video Game Music) is a video game convention in Minneapolis that celebrates all video games and their art, music, development, and narrative through experiences you can’t find at home. Gamer’s Rhapsody is the...

Join the game industry’s top audio professionals to share knowledge and experience from the real-world addressing audio’s unique aesthetic, technical, business, and logistical problems. To choose from all Audio sessions in GDC Summits, VRDC@GDC and...